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Friday, 30 November 2012

Saturday Crapshoot: Noctropolis



Every week, Richard Cobbett rolls the dice to bring you an obscure slice of gaming history, from lost gems to weapons grade atrocities. This week, a comic world unfurls itself to reveal a video of… what? Not a hero for the ages, that’s for sure, but just maybe the hero within. Hmm. Nah.
You know what? This week, let’s try something a bit different…
“Show” Notes: Yep, rough, I know. Never tried one of these before – that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it. Hopefully made for a fun experiment though, and don’t worry, it’s back to text next week. Not least because while I clearly can’t type faster than I talk, I do type faster than I Premiere Pro.
To add a few more bits to the game itself (editing a recording goof being far more difficult than reworking a paragraph, especially when the neighbours want to sleep) Noctropolis certainly isn’t a dreadful game. The city is wonderfully stylish, and really stood out at the time – as did simply attempting a mature theme, even if it did get more than a little bogged down in sexist tropes. The basic adventure though is weak, both in being a relentlessly linear tread through incredibly simplistic puzzles, and simply not making the most of what it’s got. Why have five villains if one of them barely gets a scene, another’s world serves no purpose, and only one is even pretending to be involved with the Big Bad?
I just realised I didn’t rant about this awful, timed puzzle. Well, insert one here.
Likewise, the concept is a good one, though the use of FMV was a mistake for reasons that should be pretty obvious. Its main flaw is setting it up, then not really running with it. Peter barely reacts to anything that happens, to the point that even getting knifed has no weight. As for the villain, we don’t know him. Original Darksheer comes across as a bit bloodthirsty in the tie-in comic, so it’s not like Batman – who he totally is not, ahem – suddenly going rogue. I’ve heard that all joking aside, this was actually meant to be a Batman game, but the company couldn’t get the license. That may be apocryphal, but I really wouldn’t be surprised, and I’d have liked to play that hypothetical game. If it ever existed, of course.
Peter’s own path from zero to hero is also entirely too easy. He gets badly hurt, true, and has to play detective a bit. All the encounters are staged though, to the point that he doesn’t deserve the heroic status he has at the end. He’s just the guy who flipped the coin. That could still work, if he was interesting. He’s not though, and nobody else – even Stiletto – gets enough screen time.
Even so, three words: Faux Action Girl. A chronic case.
Another weird no-death situation. I don’t mind games being forgiving or brutal per se, but it helps if they’re consistent…
So then, Noctropolis. Good ideas. Not so good execution. It’s campy FMV fun though, even if little that happens is particularly memorable. The soundtrack deserves props though, and in a nice gesture, the composer has all of the main tracks in MP3 format. They’re much better quality than the MIDI versions you can squeeze out of the game, and well worth sticking next to the likes of The 7th Guest.
As for the internal Tex Murphy argument? That’s one for another week…
“Lumisheer” is not really a lemon-scented kitchen cleaner. But it totally should be.

The Indies’ Guide to Game Making



This article originally appeared in issue 246 of PC Gamer UK.
You might have heard that “It’s never been easier to make a game.” And it’s true. But how do you actually make one? What do you make it ‘in’? How much does it cost? How long does it take? Can you sell what you make, and do you owe anyone any royalties? Do you need to learn a programming language?
I don’t know, but I do know a lot of indie games. And lots of them are made with tools and suites that claim to be beginner friendly. So for each of the most popular tools, I found an indie developer who had made something cool with it, and asked them what it’s like to work with.
I’ll also cover how much these tools cost, what your rights are when it comes to selling your work, and what platforms they can make games for. If you’ve ever been interested in making a game, hopefully this will give you an idea of how long it takes to pick up, which tool will suit you, and where to start.
Unity
Unity looks like a level editor, but does everything.

Unity

What is it? An all-inclusive development suite for making 3D games.
Price and licence: The free version has all you’ll need as a beginner, and is fine to use commercially unless you’re making more than $100,000 a year from your games. The pro version has fancy things like pathfinding, physics, and graphics tricks, and costs £924. No royalties for either version.
Makes games for: PC, Mac and Linux. iOS and Android versions are £246 each.
Game Making feature Aaaa
Aaaaa! is a game about falling.

AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! – For the Awesome


Developers: Ichiro Lambe (Dejobaan Games) and Alex Schwartz (Owlchemy Labs – Unity Version)
How long does Unity take to learn?
Ichiro: Beginners often adapt and reframe what they’re thinking about to fit what’s readily available to them – they’ll learn how to code through tutorials. The ability to create something playable becomes less “Do I know enough to create something or don’t I?” And more “I don’t know what everything does, but I know enough to screw with Euclidean space…”
What that gives us is the ability to become creative in a matter of weeks!
What prior knowledge or skills are helpful?
Ichiro: Knowledge of another 3D engine, Solid C# (or C++, etc) skills, vector algebra.
What can’t you do with it?
Alex: Honestly, we haven’t hit development walls that prevented us from fulfilling our creative goals, and anything that annoys us is usually just a minor editor idiosyncrasy.
How long did you think the game would take to make, and how long did it actually take?
Alex: We estimated around six months, with only two full-time developers on Owlchemy Labs’ end and one to three part-timers on Dejobaan’s end. It ended up being closer to eight-and-a-half months.
How much of the development time was enjoyable, and how much was unpleasant?
Alex: Thankfully the work within Unity was mostly pleasant. The most unpleasant part of the development of the game involved bringing in 3D Game Studio’s proprietary asset formats where a source asset was not available, but that was solved early on in development.
Game Making feature Aaaa
Unity is best for 3D games.
How much did it cost you to develop, and what did that money go on?
Ichiro: Most of the project was done via revenue share, so development/marketing costs were well under $20k.
How well has your game done for you financially, on a scale from 1-10? (Let’s say 5 is ‘enough to make your next game’.)
Ichiro: Time will tell. Most of our revenue comes about over the course of two years after the initial push (when we do bundles and Steam sales and so forth). The original Aaaaa! was doing pretty well, until we added it to the Portal 2 Potato ARG. That dialled things up to 11.
If you could give your past self one piece of advice before starting to make the game, what would it be?
Ichiro: Add in one more killer mechanic that pervades the entire game and gets fans of the original to pick up the semi-sequel.

Conclusion

Unity is the best combination of approachable and versatile for 3D games. It’s more complex than Game Maker, but about as easy as it gets for 3D development. The free version is very generous, and the recent addition of Linux support makes it one of the only noob-friendly tools that can make games for all three desktop operating systems.

Adventure Game Studio
AGS provides the basic adventure game structure.

Adventure Game Studio

What is it? An all-inclusive development suite for making 2D adventure games.
Price and licence: Free, you can sell your work, no royalties.
Makes games for: PC
Ben There Dan That
Adventure games require a lot of art...

Ben There Dan That

Developer: Dan Marshall
How long does Adventure Game Studio take to learn?
AGS abstracts quite a lot of the complicated stuff for you and it all just works. You can pretty much make the bare bones of something simple in a weekend with a lot of perseverance and very little programming knowledge, because it’s largely just filling in forms and ticking checkboxes.
What prior knowledge or skills are helpful?
If you want to do anything exciting or interesting with the game, you’re going to have to learn some C.
What can’t you do with it?
Lots, I’m afraid. AGS is great for making faux-1990s point-and-click games, but nothing else. It’s also Windows only, so no iPad or Linux versions.
AGS is also kind of getting on a bit, now. You could probably make an AGS-equivalent in Unity in about a week, and get all the multi-platform benefits and visual boost with it.
Ben There Dan That
...but not much serious programming.
How long did you think the game would take to make, and how long did it actually take?
I think it probably took about as long as I’d expected it would, a couple of months. But then, Ben There, Dan That! has a deliberately… uh, slapdash style.
How much of the development time was enjoyable, and how much was unpleasant?
Ben There, Dan That! was pretty much a laugh from start to finish, largely because I wasn’t taking it seriously. Maybe the only unpleasant bit was writing all the dialogue – there’s a unique reaction for most things in the game, and so sitting there churning out dialogue did start to become something of a chore.
How much did it cost you to develop, and what did that money go on?
Uh… I don’t think I spent anything.
How well has it done for you financially, on a scale from 1-10?
Ooh, tricky. On its own, probably a 3 or a 4. As a Double Pack with the sequel on Steam, definitely a 9. I could always use more money.
If you could give your past self one piece of advice before starting to make the game, what would it be?
HEY! IDIOT DAN FROM THE PAST. Make the graphics nice!

Conclusion

Adventure Game Studio is perfect if the cool thing about the game in your head is its story, characters or humour. If you want to make all- new game mechanics, you’re better off with Game Maker. But if you’re a writer or artist and you want to tell a story with as little coding work as possible, this is where to start.

RPG Maker
RPGM comes with art to get you started.

RPG Maker

What is it? An all-inclusive development suite primarily for making 2D RPGs. Includes some graphics sets to get you started.
Price and licence: £18 for the older version, £55 for the latest. You can sell what you make, no royalties. 30-day trial available.
Makes games for: PC
To The Moon
If you can produce art like this, make a game.

To the Moon

Developer: Kan Gao (Director/Designer)
How long does RPG Maker take to learn?
Anyone could just sit down and get a character sprite to run around on a map with a basic battle system, but I think a few months to get the basic technical aspects down. To create your own systems and mechanics involves programming logic just like any language.
What prior knowledge or skills are helpful?
On the technical side, programming experience (the engine uses a scripting system based on Ruby) and a general grasp of logic.
Otherwise, every creative skill comes in handy – the engine actually has a rather active community, which is exciting because it also means that there’s a lot of bartering for resources going on. It’s like Burning Man, but with less sand.
What can’t you do with it?
As far as 2D stuff goes, there’s actually not much of a limitation as far as the program’s capability is concerned. You can operate on the entire engine and create a shoot-em-up like U.S.G.. The main technical restriction for me right now is the inability to port to Apple Mac and Linux, but that might change.
To The Moon
Get used to drawing every character from 4 directions.
How long did you think the game would take to make, and how long did it actually take?
21 months. We started in February 2010, and it was released on November 1st, 2011. But its initial ‘expected’ release date was April 2010.
How much of the development time was enjoyable, and how much was unpleasant?
It wasn’t all prancing around a meadow, but I did purr a lot. A large positive factor was the variety of tasks to break down the monotony of the ‘work’. The unpleasant part was mainly personal rather than work-related. But still, making the game was definitely an 87.3% enjoyable experience.
If you could give your past self one piece of advice before starting to make the game, what would it be?
Plan out the progress in small segments, then spread them out over twice the time so you can actually follow it sustainably. Also, tomorrow’s winning lottery number is 08 21 59 37.

Conclusion

RPG Maker is very well suited to a very particular kind of game: Japanese-style RPGs with turn-based combat and top-down exploration. You can certainly stray from that template, as To the Moon does, but the further away from it you go, the more sense it makes to use Game Maker instead.

Game Maker
The built-in sprite editor isn’t bad.

GameMaker

What is it? An all-inclusive development suite for 2D games. You can either create rules with a drag-and-drop interface, or write code in its scripting language, GML.
Price and licence: The limited version is free, basic version is £30, a version for teams is £60. You can sell the games you make with any of them, no royalties.
Makes games for: PC and Mac. iOS and Android versions are £120 extra each, HTML5 is £60.
Spelunky
Consistent rules are simpler to code.

Spelunky

Developer: Derek Yu
How long does Game Maker take to learn?
It shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks. It’s very intuitive and there is a wealth of tutorials and scripts for it.
What prior knowledge or skills are helpful?
Some programming knowledge and familiarity with C-based languages would help you take advantage of the scripting language. Some skill with pixel art couldn’t hurt!
What can’t you do with it?
Game Maker 8.1 (the version I’m using) is too slow to handle modern graphics and audio. It is strictly for games that look like they came from the ’90s or earlier. But I don’t know if that’s still true of Game Maker Studio, the latest incarnation of GM.
Spelunky
Making levels tile-based saves a lot of time
How long did Spelunky take to make?
Spelunky took me about a year of on-and-off work to finish, which is maybe double what I guessed when I started working. But I also didn’t anticipate that the game would get as popular as it did.
How much of the development time was enjoyable?
I’d say it was 90% enjoyable and Game Maker played a big part in that. Given how easy it is to use, you can spend most of your time doing art and design!
How much did it cost you to develop?
I don’t think I spent any money on the original Spelunky, aside from the £12 registration fee for Game Maker (£30 these days).
If you could give your past self one piece of advice before starting to make the game, what would it be?
I’d be afraid of messing with my past self too much, since things turned out well and I attribute part of that to my naiveté. Maybe I’d just send myself a cookie!

Conclusion

Game Maker is one of the easiest tools to use for an absolute beginner, and it’s flexible enough to make almost any 2D game you can think of. The only reason not to use it is if you want to make something in 3D, or you’re planning an adventure game or J-RPG. There are better options specifically for those.

Unreal Development Kit
You can jump in and play very quickly.

Unreal Development Kit

What is it? An all-inclusive development suite for making 3D games in the Unreal Engine 3.
Price and licence: £60, no royalties on your first $50,000 in revenue, 25% royalty afterwards. Free for non-commercial use.
Makes games for: Almost everything – PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Flash (web), WiiU, PS Vita.
Waves
Waves makes the most of UDK’s flashy effects.

Waves

Developer: Rob Hale
How long does UDK take to learn?
It’s tricky because you’re always building on top of how Epic like to structure games. That learning process will continue for years, but you can make something simple very quickly, maybe within just a couple of hours, and be relatively competent in a few weeks.
What prior knowledge or skills are helpful?
Any previous programming experience is very helpful, but be prepared to swallow your pride and do things the ‘Unreal Way’.
What can’t you do with it? Anything that involves changing terrain in real time. Voxel worlds like Minecraft.
How long did you think the game would take to make, and how long did it actually take?
If you asked me during development how long I had left I would always say “A couple of months.” Ultimately I worked on Waves for about nine months in total, but I wasn’t doing 40 hour weeks or anything.
How much of the development time was enjoyable?
There were a few times when working on the game was a chore, specifically getting the user interface and menus done. I will say that if you don’t enjoy solving problems and being faced with mysteries on a daily basis, then don’t get into games development.
Waves
3D engines tend to be better for fancy lighting, even for 2D games.
How much did it cost you to develop, and what did that money go on?
Living expenses and music. I had about £6k saved up when I quit my job and went full time and I spent every penny of that finishing the game. UDK has an upfront fee of £60 but you don’t need to pay anything until you’re ready to release.
How well has it done for you financially, on a scale from 1-10?
I’d rate it as a 6. I can afford to make another game and I even have a little bit extra so I can pay some freelancers, but if I don’t get another game released inside of a year then I’ll be in trouble.
If you could give your past self one piece of advice before starting to make the game, what would it be?
Don’t call it Waves! Nobody remembers the name and you can’t find it on Google.

Conclusion

UDK is the thing to learn if you ultimately want to be making big, shiny, multi-platform games. It’s harder to learn than Unity, and you’ll need to be very versatile or form a team to make something that looks good. But it’s also great experience if you want to join an established developer, since Unreal 3 is the most commonly used engine in mainstream games.




Huge GOG EA sale discounts Ultima, Wing Commander and more


If you’re stumped for something to play this weekend, you might find some inspiration in this enormousweekend sale at GOG.com, which has lined up 26 of EA’s goodest oldest games and shot 60% off their asking prices with the discount gun. $62.14 will get you all the Ultimas, Wing Commanders, Populi (Populouses?) and Dungeon Keepers, plus loads more, or you can buy each game individually for $2.39, which should be about £1.49 in old money.
With Chris Roberts back in the limelight courtesy of Star Citizen, now might be a good time to revisit (or finally play) his Wing Commander titles, and see Mark Hamill in his other famous sci-fi role. (Professional bad guy, and former actor, Malcom McDowell also stars, as Space Marshal Sir Geoffrey Tolwyn.) Of course, it’s always a good time to play Ultima Underworld, the dungeon crawling spin-off of the Ultima series – that is, if you can get used to the archaic controls. You’ll have your own highlights from this bountiful collection, but if you’re tempted you might want to get a wriggle on – the sale ends in two-and-a-half days.

Hitman: Absolution shows off “living, breathing” soon to be dead world


OK, so we’re a bit late with this one – but then I was crouched behind a bin waiting for the perfect moment to knock out a PCG writer so I could use his uniform to gain access to the building. Now, dressed in an old pair of jeans and an XL Bus Simulator T-shirt, I’m finally ready to post about Hitman: Absolution and its latest trailer, which shows off the game’s “living, breathing world”.
Look at it there, all living and breathing. Really, there are three things to take away from this trailer: that the background chatter of security guards and civilians might be a wee bit more interesting than “Shall we gather for whiskey and cigars tonight?”, that (if this is all in-game footage at least) we can probably expect some veeery impressive crowd scenes, and that… disco-dancing cops. I’m pretty sure Reg never did that on The Bill.
With the game due in only two-and-a-bit weeks (November 20th), we thankfully won’t have to wait long for answers. In the meantime, click to two minutes in to see 47 drop some beats for the cast of Holby Blue.
If you’re interested in picking up Hitman: Absolution, you can secure a 35% discount through Green Man Gaming between now and 1200 GMT on November 23. Enter the following, top secret code to get your money off: GMG35-FGR37-COY0B.

The best Portal 2 singleplayer maps and campaigns



Thanks to the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC’s intuitive and enthralling editor, Portal 2 has a near-endless supply of new puzzles for players to enjoy. Since its release, over 200,000 new community made levels have been uploaded to the Steam Workshop, ready for a one-click download and integration into Cave Johnson’s pan-dimensional scam. Whether you love lasers, revere repulsion gel or crave companion cubes (don’t we all?) there’s sure to be something out there.
Here’s our pick of the best ten community-created puzzles available, and a further five fulsome campaigns. Obviously, with so many to choose from, some are bound to have fallen through the cracks. Be sure to share your favourites in the comments, and keep your eyes peeled for our top co-op maps in the very near future.

1. Permutations

There’s an island in the middle of the map’s suspiciously brown water. On it, three buttons deactivate the emancipation grids to the three rooms off to the size. Simple enough – head to each room, collect its cube, and pop them on the switches. Except each solution requires elements from the others, leading to a puzzle that quickly has you running through what can be done where. Satisfyingly convoluted.Download Permutations here.

2. Goobound


I’m a sucker for both gels and excursion funnels, so Goobound was already off to a promising start. It’s a series of paint-based puzzles, that have you really thinking about the application of that blue bouncy goo. What really sells the map is the button-based end section, that has you figure out the sequence of ramps to raise in order to bounce yourself to the exit. Download Goobound here.

3. Four Block

Four Block is a great realisation of a segmented room theme. Unlike Permutations, here each challenge is linked only by the need to collect a cube to bring back to the small central room that acts as the main hub. It’s a clever example of how to create a series of fun puzzles out of all of the game’s many elements, and still have it gel together in a cohesive whole. Download Four Block here.

4. Collective Scrutiny

In Collective Scrutiny, mapper Edeslash creates a large, multi-roomed chamber, in which many of the puzzle elements are kept separate from their home by those portal and object destroying emancipation grids. Bypassing them involves directing lasers, rescuing spheres and liberal application of orange gel. It’s not particularly difficult, but working through the various processes is a lot of fun. Download Collective Scrutiny here.

5. Gate

Mevious is probably the most prolific and well known of Portal 2 mappers, thanks in no small part to a Valve made collection of his work from the Testing Initiative’s beta. His levels trend towards the compact but devious, a style exemplified in Gate. You’re placed on the wrong end of an emancipation grid but, despite appearances, the solution is sheer elegance in its simplicity. Download Gate here.

6. Magnetic

Magnetic presents a series of challenges that require you to transport a cube to a button on the other side of the room. Twist: those cubes are at the other side of a wire mesh, in self contained areas with no portalable surfaces, that are just close enough to be carried. The unusual set up of the puzzles led to a section that had me stumped for long minutes before I realised the solution was blindingly obvious.Download Magnetic here.

7. Path of the Cube

Something different to the usual puzzle set-up of having the Perpetual Testing stickman doing the level acrobatics. In Path of the Cube, you and your Companion Cube operate two buttons to guide a regular cube through a side-on maze full of moving platforms and excursion funnels. No portalling to be done here, but the inventiveness of the premise makes for a nice change. Download Path of the Cube here.

8. The Laser Cross


All great laser-based maps are about making your limited resources stretch further than should be possible. The Laser Cross is one of the best, forcing you to constantly revise your solution as you attempt to activate the various components of each room with just two refraction cubes. One simple mistake and you’ll end up back at the start, refining what seemed like a sound plan. Just watch out for the bloody faith plate. Download The Laser Cross here.

9. Time Saving

Mapmaker Romb has a penchant for devising some of the trickiest puzzles to come out of the community. Time Saving isn’t the most head-scratching of his creations, but unlike many of the others, it also doesn’t rely on obfuscation or odd quirks of Portal 2′s physics. Instead it’s an enjoyable sequence of problems to overcome, with a timing element that’s sure to please Portal 1 fanatics. Download Time Saving here.

10. Too Simple

A cube on the floor. A button connected to the exit beside it. Simple, right? Well, no, not quite. Too Simple has a devious little trick up its sleeve that blocks you from completing the obvious. Once it’s revealed its gotcha, the rest of the level isn’t that hard to work out, but it’s a nice little timing challenge and a reminder that in Portal, nothing is quite what it seems. Download Too Simple here.

While the in-game editor is a great tool for realising your puzzle idea, it doesn’t have the flexibility create anything outside of the pristine walls of an Aperture testing chamber. For that you need Hammer, Valve’s Source map editor.
It’s a powerful tool, but also complicated and at times downright awkward. That hasn’t stopped people from using it to create more in depth campaigns – collections of levels that contain custom visuals, stories, scripting and even special physics rules. Here’s five that show off what a dedicated mapmaker can achieve.
//Community Campaigns

1. 12 Angry Tests

12 Angry Tests is an exceptional seven part campaign that serves as a standalone GLaDOS-free story that mirrors the structure of Portal 2. you start out in an abandoned and worn-down Aperture, solving fiendish laser and refraction cube puzzles. From there you wind up in the depths of old Aperture, playing with gels and momentum, before the hard light/excursion funnel heavy final act, among rows of long abandoned test chambers.
It’s full of clever flourishes, like one room late in the game that completely reconfigures itself just as you’re about to solve it. There are plenty of twists from the plot, too. Like any good Portal 2 campaign, there’s a surprising antagonist hindering your progress. In all, it’s an hour or so of new content with pitch-perfect difficulty and a keen eye for what makes a great portal-based puzzle. Download 12 Angry Tests here.

2. Decay

Set after the events of Portal 2, Decay shows an Aperture that has been left to… well, you know. Run down test chambers aren’t exactly a new idea for Hammer made maps – even Portal 2 itself is filled with them – but Decay really takes the dilapidation to extremes. Corridors are wonky, puzzles no longer align properly and absolutely everything is falling apart.
The puzzles included are some of the hardest on this list. The second of the three parts is particularly tricky, pulling every design trick to introduce new obstacles that disrupt previously sound plans. In the third part, elements of different test chambers overlap, causing plenty of misdirection. But the visual spectacle of the climactic climb through the rubble is a compelling reason to endure its red herrings.Download Decay here.

3. Designed for Danger

One of the early plans for Portal 2 saw Chell at the whims of a selection of personality cores, each with their array of test chambers. Designed for Danger gives you an idea of how this might have played out. You start in one of the main game’s early test levels, but as you move to solve it, you’re broken out by Rick, the adventure sphere. Apparently Nolan North doesn’t make enough appearances in games, so we have to put him in mods now.
Rick has designed a bunch of deadly adventure chambers for you to solve. Well, sort of. Designed for Danger’s theme is mostly sold through visual touches and between chamber sections. For the well designed puzzles, danger merely means “contains a lot of lasers.” That is, until the final act, which sends you through the bowels of Aperture. Download Designed for Danger here.

4. Curious Chamber

Curious Chamber is a three part campaign that subverts gravitational direction to create a series of puzzles that are constantly surprising. To give the least spoilery example, the first chamber has an uncrossable gap, a white wall to fly out of, but nowhere to build up enough momentum to do so. Except, that when you investigate a small corridor with a target painted at the end wall, gravity flips 90 degrees and you’re suddenly falling into it.
Throughout it shows off just what tricks are possible with Hammer. That reaches a whole new level in the last part, a series of chambers that are inventively presented to create a memorable, and funny, experience that becomes increasingly difficult over time. Download Curious Chamber here.

5. Moonbase Luna-C

A series of test chambers set on the moon! That means more than just seeing acres of greyish-brown rock outside of the windows, because these maps also make use of reduced gravity. It seems like such a small change – you can jump higher and for longer, but so what? Except the effect the change has on your ability to navigate levels is massive.
It’s a case of relearning your limits and intuitively realising which leaps you can make. But the levels also feature liberal use of laser grids, both below and above you, to create challenges that would be impossible with our stupid, restrictive Earth gravity. Still, no matter where you are, the turrets remain happy to politely kill you. Download Moonbase Luna-C here.